Well heck, I'll just clutter things up with some talk about
pants. Not worthwhile stuff like Who Was First but rather more
nerdly geekish faux tech talk.
I apologize if I've already "said" these things; I only went
back a page or so to "check."

Mighty H, the sailor pants referred to by eeKat are the Navy
surplus with about a dozen buttons in the front. A couple
held the trou together in the middle, then there was like a drop
seat flap (but in the front, not the back). They were
bell-bottoms. Easy to roll up if you wanted to do cool things
like swab deck on a ship, but for face climbing, some visual
obstruction was in the mix.
They had great lines (no pockets on the rear) and tended to fit climbers well.

The painter pants are no doubt more familiar to you these days:
generally straight cut, less flattering, more cluttered, with
a loop that is good for nothing but snagging on branches and a
strange pocket on the side that is good for holding a thin
paint brush or a bunch of dirt and live oak leaves.

MilkMan pants were the way to go for at least some of the
cognioscenti. Not as busy as the painter pants, and only one
button and a zipper, instead of 13 buttons (in certain circ#m-
stances, this could be a major consideration).

I believe a little digression is in order here. The Navy 13-
button units came in either white cotton or black wool.
The woolies were just wonderful, especially for ice skating,
perhaps especially on someone you were watching skate.

Now, to touch on the subject of climbing knickers and their
tendency to be a bit too warm for most conditions: a couple
friends of mine were climbing the Salathe Wall, and, yes, it
was back in the day.
When they got to El Cap Spire, Friend 1 (climbing in those
cord knickers made for Chouinard by Clark's, the really heavy
ones with a double seat and double knees) was so...what?...
distracted? outraged? demented? Well, he was so very something
or other from the heat that he converted his irreplaceable Chouinard Cord Knickers (wouldn't you like a pair now?)
into SHORTS!!! By pounding on them with his hammer!!!
(maybe you wondered about some of the scarring there, maybe it
is not noticeable)
And I know what you're thinking, you're wondering why he didn't
just use a knife, aren't you?

My friend Ed White and I climbed the Nabisco Wall together behind a group of Brits and had a grand time!
Years later I saw this book in Sports Chalet and there was Ed in the book from that day, cool!
It was first Pub in 1990, this was the 1997 edition!

Note; Ed had a split rim wheelbarrow tire blowup his hand and always had to tape his right hand!

The diagram of Nabisco Wall that accompanies the story calls the stance at the top of Wheat Thin and Butterballs "Monkey Island". Is that name commonly used? When did it start to be used? I don't think I've heard it called that before.

Anders, that was my name for it, Monkey Island. It didn't fit the "Cracker" theme of course back then, in 1971 and didn't quite reach general parlance; it seems to persist anyway, lo these 40 years. I guess my point and observation was that it was the convergence of Butterballs, Wheat Thin, Lady Fingers and Butterfingers, all on that itty bitty 8" wide or so ledgette. And to get there obviously one was part or whole monkey or similar cercopithecoid or platyrrhine.

The Alpinist #31 article is of course edited from the original tale and I like the way Katie Ives and I worked it into shape; it's a better tale and still loads of fun to read. Two more coming in Alpinist apparently soon, also!